Acoustic Telemetry Used to Track Fish

Staff from the USGS Great Lakes Science Center gaze at the Mackinac Bridge rising above the mist in the Straits of Mackinac, Michigan. The lines they are holding are attached to grappling hooks being used to retrieve acoustic telemetry equipment anchored on the bottom of the straits. The equipment is used to track fish movements in the Great Lakes and was deployed as part of the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS) network.  

Scientists have been implanting Great Lakes fish with transmitters and, like the GPS on a car, tracking fish movement through a network of receivers placed at the bottom of the lakes. The information collected from this equipment helps scientists understand fish behavior in relation to Great Lakes ecology and provides information useful to fish managers in their decision making.